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Members of the US Space Force will now be

called ‘Guardians’
Soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and now, guardians
By Ian Carlos Campbell @soupsthename Dec 18, 2020, 7:47pm EST

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Image: United States Space Force

Members of the United States Space Force will officially be called “Guardians”, according do your thing

to an announcement Vice President Mike Pence made at an event celebrating the military
branch’s one year anniversary. VERGE DEALS
The organization traces the name “Guardians” back to an old Air Force Space Command
motto from 1983, “Guardians of the High Frontier,” according to a short post on the US
Space Force website. While a distinct entity, Space Force is part of the Air Force per its
establishment with the National Defense Authorization Act.

Vice President Pence & Senior Defense Leaders Commemorat…

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As it exists today, Space Force is mostly a rebrand of Air Force Space Command, but with
the authority to make decisions independent from the Air Force. Space Force personnel
also mostly come from the Air Force, but there’s been notable transfers — like astronaut
Mike Hopkins — who’ve joined from other government organizations. Unlike Hopkins’
former employer NASA, Space Force is less concerned with exploring space, than it is
controlling it and protecting American assets like satellites. Ad-supported Hulu is only $2 for college
students

Choosing “Guardians” as an official name comes with some unavoidable (and maybe MORE IN VERGE DEALS
intended) pop culture associations. There’s Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy franchise,
which introduced Marvel film fans to the “cosmic” side of the Marvel universe. And from the
world of video games, Guardians also show up again in Destiny 2 as undead warriors
charged with defending the Last City on Earth from alien enemies.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Space Force appeared to be cribbing from pop culture,
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either. When the organization revealed the official logo, many pointed out its similarities to
the Starfleet emblem used in the television show Star Trek. The US Space Force later
attempted to clarify that it was inspired by older Air Force Space Command logos rather
than the hit series.

Miriam Kramer
@mirikramer

Oh wow.

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1:35 PM · Jan 24, 2020

1.3K 678 people are Tweeting about this

Whatever the source of the name, you can count on Space Force being a lot more mundane
than any of the pop culture we associate with it. It may be a bit of a branding exercise to AD

satisfy the President, but the Biden administration appears to have no plans to change
course. With Space Force and recent work to return to the moon, the US is focusing even
more on space heading into the next decade.

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